I’m neutral overall on this report. As I said before, they are likely to announce fee reductions later in 2018 and the timing of that will be likely around Christmas....we wait and see.
I’m negative on the need to increase staff, as they cannot prove the previous recruitment drive has delivered value. If they get the occasional institution in flow then I might soften my approach. The way they make a better company is to develop great ideas. Clearly it is a competitive market and to differentiate as a better provider is tough. However, they live this business 100% of their working life and what have they come up with? The bare minimum. They need to be much more proactive with media. My god, there’s bad stuff going on daily in the world and they don’t get to put themselves out there.
As for the financial metric, I’m mildly positive on that. So long as I get a minimum return of 30%p.a., I will stick with them.
However I am still repulsed with the excessive claims of higher rewards for executives. They base their claims on the current greed of other executives from many non-ethical companies. Hey why not try similar pay rises to most Australians...the CPI increases. Good enough for us, good enough for them.
AEF Price at posting:
$157.99 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
